chapter 25 | lovely

sometimes, she forgets that she's a supposedly very responsible person with very big responsibilities. she needed to pay her bills and rent, do her homework, hack into the government facilities on a weekly basis, work at the ramen house for free for her illegal job, and make sure her hot-and-cold friend didn't kill his father without her.

at those moments, she compiles all her responsibility into one pile for a later date.

then, the later date comes. which was today, sadly.

so, our dear protagonist was sitting on the beat-up box with the green characters stamped on from the first chapter, currently working on her not-so-legal legal work.

by that, i mean she was working on her laptop, currently hacking into the russian government to find and steal nuclear-quirk experimentation plans for the free-lance agency working with the japanese government.

also, eloquently flipping them off on all their servers with blue screens and the words 'u suck ass' in russian.

ling would probably disapprove, but when did she ever care about the approval of a parental figure? if it were up to her american southern friend, she would just shut down their whole operation by causing a teensy nuclear meltdown, but they was supposed to be part of the good guys, so they got off with their whole lives' work being stolen away.

that was all her idea. she loved the faces that those scum made when all their hard work that endangered the lives of millions just go up in smoke.

"what are you working on?" a low voice murmured into her ear, breath fanning across her face.

she jumped, crashing the top of her head into the chin of the person who startled her.

turning around, her cheeks became flushed from the proximity as her eyes connected with blue and grey ones.

his face was inches away from hers, their breaths mingling with one another.

she could smell the faint undertones of herbal tea and sea-salted nori in his breath, along with the smell of healing cream and...

peppermint?

cliché much, but alright then.

she then slapped her hand around her mouth, remembering the tuna mayo salad she had made for her lunch 2 hours ago, suddenly turning even more embarrassed.

what the fuck, why is this beautiful specimen of a man always so hot while i'm like a dying fish.

"don't scare me like that, you idiot."

she placed her hands on his shoulders, gently pushing him off.

"what are you doing here?"

he scratched the back of his head, noticing the small distance between them.

"just trying to take my mind off the yelling at home. natsu-nii and father got into a shouting match again."

sliding into the bar dining area, he braced his arms against the table, staring at her [h/c] haired, messily tied up into a low ponytail, just like their first encounter.

it's not like she changed in any way from the first time he met her, always that faked sincerity, those glow-in-the-dark-paint shoes, the same mischievous look in her twinkling [e/c] under the faint fairy lights strung around the ramen house.

but somehow, after all this time, he was starting to see her in a new light.

everything she did seem to sparkle in his eyes.

the small strands of [h/c] locks that lined her face whenever she faced him framed her face beautifully.

her words seemed to become truer, more real, more...

lovely.

she tapped his face with her mechanical pencil, noticing that he hadn't answered her previous question.

"shō-tan, you alright?"

even the way she said his name was cute.

wait, when did i start thinking she was cute?

"u-un..." he nodded his head.

grinning, she subtly wiped the contents of her laptop screen, making a big show to grab the notepad with the receipt template written on it, misdirecting his line of sight.

taking up her pencil, she positioned the tip onto the pad. "so, what's it gonna be today?"

and he couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth until they were out in the open.

"will you marry me?"

i do not regret anything

completed 09.04.20

5:42:00 p.m. a.e.s.t.(australian easternstandard time)

published 09.04.20

6:02:22 p.m. a.e.s.t.(australian easternstandard time)

published on wattpad 01.19.22